Introduction: finding English, finding us
Caedmon learns to sing : Old English and the origins of poetry
From Beowulf to Wulfstan : the language of Old English literature
In this year : the politics of language and the end of Old English
From kingdom to realm : middle English in a French world
Lord of this langage : Chaucer's English
I is an Ille a millere as are ye : Middle English dialects
The great vowel shift and the changing character of English
Chancery, Caxton, and the making of English prose
I do, I will : Shakespeare's English
A universal hubbub wild : new words and worlds in early modern English
Visible speech : the Orthoepists and the origins of standard English
A harmless drudge : Samuel Johnson and the making of the dictionary
Horrid, hooting stanzas : Lexicography and literature in American English
Antses in the sugar : dialect and regionalism in American English
Hello, dude : Mark Twain and the making of the American idiom
Ready for the funk : African American English and its impact
Pioneers through an untrodden forest : the Oxford English dictionary and its readers
Listening to Private Ryan : war and language
He speaks in your voice : everybody's English.